This story has a lot of questions attached, about money and selling to someone who has had other companies go bad, etc., but – “First, it’s worth asking why piers in general are so troublesome and troubled – for tales of burning, failing, closing piers, or of piers falling into questionable hands, or any news item enabling the headline “The End of the Pier Show”, have become part of the national story. There is the decades-long struggle to rescue the rusting remnants of the West Pier at Brighton, the dismantling of Colwyn Bay’s pier in 2018, the addition of Blackpool’s three piers to the World Monuments Watch list of buildings at risk, also in 2018. It’s also worth asking why Hastings in particular went wrong.” – The Observer (UK)
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Winner-Take-All Urbanism (Hey, Amazon HQ) Leaves A Lot Of Cities Behind
What can be done for the non-New Yorks, the non-San Franciscos, the non-Seattles? “Left to their own fate, state and local policymakers often end up shoveling money at companies in the hope of attracting future investment. It isn’t working. For today’s left-behind communities to bounce back, the federal government has to act.” – The Atlantic
Many American Film Critics Missed This, But ‘Suspiria’ Is About The Guilt At The Heart Of German History
The more German history you know – no, not only about the Nazis, but yes also about the Nazis – the more you’ll understand how very, very much cultural work this movie is doing. The movie “explores the trauma of our world by embedding [a] fable in a historical past which holds terrifying prospects for our future.” – Medium
How Miami Became A Book Town
Mitchell Kaplan founded Books & Books in 1982, a time when Miami was seen as a place of drug running, diet culture, and political unrest – and certainly not literary culture. But, well, “thirty-seven years, an international book fair and eight additional locations later, Kaplan is celebrated as the man who turned Miami into a book town, and one of the foremost literary centers in the world.” – The New York Times
The Office Of The Architect Chosen For Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Has Some Terrible Intern Practices
Junya Ishigami + Associates allegedly sent an email to a student interested in interning in their Tokyo office laying out the conditions for internship: “No pay, a six-day working week and office hours that run from 11am until midnight. The placements were described as lasting between two and three months (‘or more’), with interns required to bring their own computer equipment and software.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Most Expensive Thing To Buy Now Is Human Interaction
The poor and middle-class can’t escape screens, and the data they hoover up both mindlessly and with (scary) intention. But the rich can, and do. – The New York Times
Wait, Who Exactly Is The Real-World Analogue To The Baddies In The Most Recent Marvel Movie?
Spoiler alert, perhaps obviously. But really, whom are the Kree meant to represent? It’s unclear, or variable, perhaps, but for sure: “The Kree become a scapegoat, an oppressive empire that oppresses the oppressed.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Dave Frishberg Is 86
And there’s not enough – hardly any – video of him performing, but here’s one. – Doug Ramsey
The Art World Is Finally Responding To Older African American Artists
Well, indeed: “‘There has been a whole parallel universe that existed that people had not tapped into,’ said Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.” For some of the artists, the attention can feel like a bit of a mixed blessing, but the advantages are strong. – The New York Times
City Lights: The Little Bookshop That Could
As Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 100, a tribute to the first decade and a half of the beloved bookstore he founded. – Jan Herman